Niyola explains why she has been out of the music scene

Niyola began her music career as far back as 2000, emerging as a runner-up at the Amen Starlet Competition.

In an interview with Pulse, the singer said: “It was a lot of things, I was in a different space mentally and I feel like every artist, every creative has to take time away and uncover new discoveries about themselves, you have to evolve.

“I was in that phase where I just felt like I don’t think I am really portraying what I wanted to portray as an artist. If you went to listen to my songs, will you catch the slightest glimpse of who I am as Niyola? That has always bothered me. I was always recording and some songs were released, but I didn’t have control over a lot of things that were put out there and I was also trying to figure out who I was.

“Incidentally, a lot happened to me last year, I lost a very close friend of mine in April and then my mum passed a couple of months after, it was like everything I have been trying to work out for the past two years suddenly came to me, and I was like I need to get the hell out, I need to take a break, there was a lot of pressure.”

The singer got signed to Banky W’s Empire Mates Entertainment (EME) in 2012, with the song, Toh Bad released the following year becoming a hit single, that opened a new page in her music career.